JELLY SOAP ADDITIVES

We recently formulated a Jelly Soap Base and we at Essentials By Catalina wanted to find out what additives work and what doesn’t. We tried Glitter, Fruit Juice, Activated Charcoal, and Pumpkin Powder. Those additives worked out very well. We also tried other additives that did not work out so well….

Here we added Binchotan Activated Charcoal. it is important to mix the charcoal powder with very little DI water or alcohol before adding it to the melted soap. You need to mix it thoroughly to assure even color. Be aware that the texture may change. Always test a small amount to make sure you like the new texture.

Here we added Blue Soap Colorant and Midnight Sky Glitter. The glitter can be added in its powder form, just be sure to mix it in well. If there is a cloudy layer at the top keep heating longer or skim the layer out. You can even add mica to the jellies to add a pearl look to it. It looks wonderful in pinks blues and purples.

We used our Pumpkin Powder for this trial. the powder must be mixed before adding to the soap! The powder will give the soap a cooked pumpkin smell that may be overpowering. We mixed in a bit of Pumpkin Pie Fragrance Oil that sweetened the overall smell.

If you are going to add Powdered ingredients

Weather you are adding Pumpkin powder,charcoal, or any other powdered ingredient be sure to mix it with either DI water or alcohol. If you don’t hydrate the powder then you risk unattractive lumps of product floating around. Here is an example of the pumpkin powder not being mixed in alcohol before being added into the melted soap. (Left) the pumpkin powder was mixed with alcohol then added to the hot soap.(Right) the pumpkin powder was not mixed anything and wass added strait. The result was lumps of clumped pumpkin thru out the soap. To be honest it looks a bit like vomit!

Experiments That Didn't Work

We tried adding all sorts of ingredients to see how far this jelly soap can be taken. Granulated sugar was added at 5%. The result was a gooey cloudy mess, we don’t recommend adding any granulated sugar. Course salt was also added to a different batch, and that wasn’t successful. The salt partially dissolved and what chunks were left behind just fell out of the soap.

We also tried adding super clear soap base to try and stiffen up the soap. The jelly soap clouded up once it was completely cooled. The consistency also changed dramatically, It was the consistency of a soft gummy bear. Feel free to experiment with your own ideas!

Related

Great post with some great ideas! We used the Jelly Soap Base and added an Herbal Essential Oil Blend to create a soap geared for active people. People love the way it feels on their sore muscles! You can see it here..SoCal Grooming Jelly Soap